CAIRO, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Egypt on Tuesday raised electricity prices by an average of 26 percent in the 2018-19 fiscal year, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said.

Fiscal year in Egypt starts on July 1 and ends on June 30 the next year.

The ministry also announced new cuts on electricity subsidies, as Shaker was reading in a televised press conference.

Shaker added that the subsidy in the electricity sector reached 47 billion Egyptian pounds (2.6 billion U.S. dollars).

He added that electricity costs for factories would rise about 41.8 percent and 20.9 percent for households.

Egypt has started in 2016 a three-year economic reform program including austerity measures, fuel subsidy cuts and tax increase.

The program is encouraged by an 12-billion-dollar loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Shaker added his ministry is working on diversifying the resources for generating electricity of nuclear and renewable energies to cover 30 percent of the country's needs.